This vivid Battle of Atlanta and Battle of Ezra Church Civil War letter was written by William H. Stewart, a young farmer who enlisted in the 6th Iowa Infantry in early 1861. In January 1864, he reenlisted as a veteran and was promoted to corporal in August 1864. The letter is written in legible ink and spans four pages across one sheet of paper, folded to fit in an envelope. Stewart writes a friend from home and describes the Atlanta campaign in candid detail:

“I was in the charge before Atlanta. We charged through an open field 20 rods across, took the enemy’s rifle pits that was not over 75 yards from their main earthworks and held them. The next day at 10 o’clock P. M. the enemy made a desperate attack on the left wing of the army…it was a desperate fight and many a brave man fell on both sides battling for both sides. It was in that battle we lost our brave and gallant commander, Gen. McPherson, who could not be equalled. He was loved by all who knew him. […]

…Our other glorious field was on the 28 July before Atlanta when the 15th Corps distinguished themselves as good soldiers. There we made many a Johnnies bite the dust and a great many say we gave them furloughs to their long homes, while some say they took a passport to another world. I have seen a great many battlefields but not any where the dead lay as thick as on that field. Hood’s old Corps and Stuart’s massed themselves before our Corps (15th) with the intention of breaking our lines but they were cut down like grass. Many of them came up within 1 rod of our works and were shot down.”


Stewart survived the fighting in Georgia, but was taken prisoner in March 1865 while on a forage detail near Goldsboro, North Carolina, and is supposed to have been killed; his family never heard from him again and the whereabouts of his remains are unknown. The letter is in excellent condition.






[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Abraham Lincoln, Historic Signatures, Autograph]